Braves Sweep Miami To Move On To NLCS
Kyle Wright Dominates The Marlins, Leading Atlanta To A 7-0 Win In Game 3 Finale
The Atlanta Braves finished off Miami on Thursday, looking strong and deep– and confident–as they earned a place in the NLCS for the first time since 2001. The Braves shut out Miami for the 2nd consecutive day, with righthander Kyle Wright working out of a couple of early jams en route to a 6 inning, 3 hit performance. He walked 2 Marlins and struck out 7. From there Atlanta’s bullpen continued Wright’s fine work, with Minter, Webb and Greene each working one scoreless inning.
Dansby Swanson and Travis d’Arnaud led the Braves’ attack with 2 hits and 2 RBI’s apiece. Atlanta scored 4 runs in the 3rd inning and were not really challenged from there.
The recent strong work of the Braves’ pitching staff has stirred memories of the dominant pitching that led the club to historic heights in the 1990’s. This shutout was Atlanta’s 4th in their 5 game postseason win streak. Opponents this postseason have scored a grand total of 5 runs over 49 innings against the Braves (an ERA of 0.92), all of them coming in a 9-5 win in Game One vs. the Marlins. That game featured a rare mediocre outing from Max Fried, which the Braves overcame with timely hitting late along with shutdown relief work. Thursday’s win was a complete team effort, with precise pitching, strong hitting and more sparkling defense.
By winning the series in 3 straight, the Braves earned an opportunity to rest their pitchers before the NLCS starts on Monday. In the interim, both Wright and Wednesday’s winner Ian Anderson will have time to ponder their newly-earned status as winning pitchers in the postseason. Each is now an established starter, and an integral part of a strong staff for Atlanta. Max Fried, the de facto staff ace, is the “old hand” at the tender age of 26, with all of 67 major league starts under his belt in his 3-plus years with the Braves. Even so, that’s over twice as many total starts as Anderson and Wright have combined. And yet, inexperienced as they may seem, these 3 pitchers are now the terrific troika upon whose shoulders the further fortunes of the 2020 Atlanta Braves largely rest. We still don’t know who will be the fourth horse when the NLCS game 4 rolls around a week from now in Arlington.
Overall, the Braves looked settled and calm..and resolute. Catcher d’Arnaud and LF/ DH Ozuna have brought new energy to the Braves’ lineup and to the clubhouse. They have also delivered stout offensive production. All of that makes Atlanta a worthy foe for the estimable LA Dodgers in the NLCS.
Longtime Atlanta fans will recall a time when the Dodgers were a hated rival somehow intra-divisional, in the oddly-configured West division, from 1969 until 1994 (along with San Francisco, San Diego, Houston and Cincinnati). It was the Dodgers whom the Braves chased down in the 2nd half of their worst-to-first 1991 season, erasing an 8.5 game lead that L.A. held at the All-Star break. That successful season, of course, launched a dominant decade for the Braves. They bested the Dodgers again in the 1996 NLDS. From there, it was 17 years before the 2 clubs again met in the playoffs, with the Dodgers prevailing in the NLDS in 2013, and again in 2018.
Los Angeles is the early heavy favorite in next week’s NLCS, but Atlanta will show up and compete– and now, with 5 straight postseason wins to their credit, Atlanta looks quite competitive. The Dodgers will be designated as the home team, but all games will be played in Arlington, Texas. With the pandemic upon us, we are reminded that not even the myriad traditions of baseball are immune to the vagaries of our current situation. It’s not ideal…but it is playoff baseball in October, which seemed a remote possibility only a few months ago. So we will take it. Play ball!
Patrick Conarro
RamblinSports